Fishkind Commentaries: School PECO Funds Tapped Out
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
By: Tom Parkinson

Jan. 31, 2012 | WMFE - Florida's public schools will not be getting any money from the state this year for building maintenance, new construction or for finishing some building projects that have already been started.

 
The state fund that pays for school construction and maintenance, known as PECO, is nearly out of money.
The legislature does have $55 million dollars left in the Public Education Capital Outlay fund but has decided to give all of it to the state’s charter schools and none to the other public schools and universities.
School superintendents and university presidents say that means partially built classrooms will be left unfinished. They also some students will have to attend class in older buildings that are in severe disrepair with peeling paint, broken plumbing and leaky roofs.
90.7’s Tom Parkinson asked economic analyst Hank Fishkind to explain what the PECO fund is and what happened to the money that was supposed to be in it.